The present invention pertains to a technique for adaptively assigning communication links between communication nodes in a highly dynamic communication network such as a space-based network. The topology of such a network changes frequently due to various factors. By way of example, in a satellite network, satellite pairs are continuously going into and out of line-of-sight with each other, due to relative motion between the two satellites, particularly where the network is made up of two or more constellations of satellites at different orbital altitudes. As a consequence, many satellite pairs are continuously acquiring and losing the capability for direct communication between the two satellites of the pair. Furthermore, in hostile environments, threats from, for example, directed energy weapons, antisatellite weapons and jammers alter network topology. Satellites designed to survive such scenarios must carefully allocate their communication resources to maintain network performance. Each communication node in the network must have the ability to intelligently evaluate the existing network topology and mission-dependent criteria and to assign available resources such as transceivers, antennae, power, and bandwidth so as to maximize utilization and effectiveness Maintaining optimum communications further requires that the communication nodes be able to drop some links to establish more favorable ones and to take part in a coordinated search for neighbor nodes which are known to be isolated from the network.
To date, the bulk of satellite communication applications have revolved around space-to-ground links where human intervention is available to aid decision making and control. Entirely space-based networks require a high degree of reliability and the capability of autonomous operation.